The office is completely wrecked. A bookcase has been smashed to splinters while its books have been completely torn apart and the remains are scattered all over the place. The desk has several scratches on its surface while the big chair that once seated Don Salvatore Leone has been thrown through a window.

Maria Leone has passed out on the messy floor. She’s in a pretty bad shape. Her face is covered with blood while her clothes are all dirty and ripped up.

Toni Cipriani is standing by the door, looking at the scene.

Toni: “Holy f*ck, what a mess!”

Gino promptly appears.

Gino: “I told you, she destroyed the place!”

Toni: “Yeah, but I didn’t think it was this bad!”

Gino: “What took you so long anyway? You said you were going to take care of her!”

Toni: “I had to take care of some personal matters but everything is sorted now, don’t worry.”

A phone rings.

Toni: “Holy crap! The phone works again!”

The phone keeps ringing.

Gino: “Yeah but, where is it?”

The phone keeps ringing. Toni and Gino begin looking for it for a few seconds until Gino finally gets a hold of it and answers it. He talks for a few seconds and then he looks at Toni.

Gino: “Hey Toni, it’s for you.”

Toni takes the receiver.

Toni: “Yeah?”

Ma Cipriani: “Toni?”

Toni: “Hey Ma.”

Ma Cipriani: “I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I should’ve never doubted you, my son.”

Toni: “Don’t worry about that, Ma. Did you like the spicy steak?”

Ma Cipriani: “It was delicious, Toni. It was so good that I even sold some steaks to the few customers that are coming back. They said they’ve never tasted anything like that before! You should bring more of that top quality meat!”

Gino gets out of the car and knocks the front door of the apartment building. An old lady appears.

Old lady: “What do you want?”

Gino: “Tell Hammond that Gino is here, please.”

Old lady: “Do you think I’m Hammond’s f*cking secretary?”

Gino: “Listen lady, I have no time for this sh*t. Go tell Hammond that Gino is here!”

Old lady: “f*ck you, brat!”

The old lady tries to close the door, but Gino stops her.

Gino: “Lady, you just pissed me off.”

Gino takes out his gun and shows it to the old lady. She’s scared sh*tless.

Gino: “Now… DO WHAT I TOLD YOU!”

The old lady quickly goes back inside the building. Gino is just standing there for a few seconds until a car’s engine is heard. Gino quickly turns around.

Gino: “sh*t!”

Gino’s car is starting to move. Gino looks at the driver’s side of the car and sees Maria.

Gino: “What are you doing? You f*cking bitch!”

The car’s speed is increasing, but Maria is in a really bad shape so she can’t drive properly. The car is spinning around the street until Maria manages to take it to the bridge, hitting the sides of the road repeatedly.

Callahan Bridge, Liberty City - Autumn 2001Monday – 8:13 PM

Gino: “WHAT THE f*ck ARE YOU DOING? COME BACK HERE!”

Gino quickly chases the car. Maria can’t drive and she’s losing control of the vehicle. Maria realizes this and just starts laughing.

Maria (laughing): “I can’t believe I’m doing this! This is so fun!”

The car keeps hitting the sides until it gets severely damaged. Gino is still chasing the car, but he’s unable to keep up with it.

Gino: “f*ck YOU, MARIA!”

Gino finally stops running. He’s too tired to go on.

The car keeps going over the bridge. Maria sees something ahead.

Maria: “Oh, look! A wrecked car!”

The car is quickly heading straight to the wreckage.

Maria: “This is going to be fun!”

The car keeps going steady until it finally crashes. The impact causes Maria to get severely hit with the steering wheel, getting her unconscious. Some smoke starts coming out from the front of the vehicle and then a small fire starts. Maria stays unconscious.

A few seconds later, Gino has finally recovered a bit and continues running towards the vehicle, which is now in flames.

Gino: “sh*t!!”

Gino is just about to reach the vehicle when it finally explodes. The shockwave causes Gino to fall backwards.

Ma Cipriani is saying goodbye to her last customers for the day. She closes the door as they all leave and then picks up the dirty dishes from the tables and puts them in the dishwasher behind a counter just before looking at the room for a few seconds.

Toni: “Oh, come on! ‘IRS: Internal Revenue Service’ is so boring! Who wants to see tax collectors doing their job, for Christ’s sake?”

Francesco: “Whatever.”

A few more seconds pass and the phone keeps dialing.

Francesco: “I don’t think Gino is at home, he’s not answering.”

Francesco hangs up.

Toni: “Does he have a cell-phone?”

Francesco: “Nope. He hates cell-phones and technology altogether. I tried to convince him to get a computer a year ago and he’s always saying that computers will end up taking over in the near future.”

Toni: “Well, Maria and Gino are not where they are supposed to be, so I guess they left this place together.”

The phone rings and Francesco immediately answers.

Francesco: “Yes?”

Voice on the phone: “Yeah, is Gino there?”

Francesco: “No, we’re actually looking for him. Why? Who are you?”

Voice: “Oh, excuse me. I’m Hammond. Listen, some guys from the Zaibatsu Emergency Response Team, or something like that, are on the Callahan Bridge putting out a fire on a Mafia Sentinel that crashed. According to my landlord, she saw Gino getting out of that car. I went to investigate and there’s only a dead woman in the scene and no trace of Gino. There were only a couple of witnesses and one of them says that he saw a man running away from the vehicle on fire, but he wouldn’t remember his appearance due to the darkness of the streets. I’m worried about this since I’ve known Gino for a long time and I hope he’s okay.”

Francesco is a bit shocked.

Francesco: “All right, Hammond... thanks for the info.”

Hammond: “Well, if you know anything about Gino, please let me know. My number is 555-32-11.”

Francesco: “Yeah, don’t worry. Bye.”

Francesco hangs up.

Toni looks at Francesco.

Toni: “Well?”

Francesco: “We should head to the Callahan Bridge, now!”

Toni: “Why?”

Francesco: “There’s a Mafia Sentinel on fire and there’s a dead woman on the scene.”

Toni: “What?? Do you think that’s Maria?”

Francesco: “Who else could that be? And Gino apparently ran away from that vehicle.”

Toni gets a bit furious.

Toni: “WHAT?!”

Francesco: “Well, there’re very few clues that support that.”

Toni: “I don’t care! Let’s go!!”

Toni and Francesco leave the mansion and head to Toni’s car which is parked in front of the entrance stairs. They quickly get in and speed away.

Callahan Bridge, Liberty City - Autumn 2001Monday – 8:40 PM

Toni and Francesco are arriving to the bridge, where a black ambulance and fire truck surrounded by people in yellow suits are parked. Some of this people are putting out the fire while the others are waiting. The golden letters on the sides of the vehicles read ZERT and they have no license plates.

As the Mafia Sentinel is approaching the scene, some of the people in yellow suits block their way and orders them to stop. Toni stops the car and he and Francesco come out.

Tommy Vercetti is sitting on a couch. He seems extremely nervous. Barry, his employee, is sitting next to him drinking a glass of water. Claude is talking with Ray, who is still laying on one bed while Paul is still sleeping on the other one.

Ray: “We should leave this place immediately!”

Claude: “What about Paul?”

Ray: “He’ll wake up soon. The doctor said 5 hours, remember?”

Tommy gets up.

Tommy: “I have no time for this! I have to make sure my son is all right!”

Ray: “Oh, really? I thought you didn’t care about him.”

Tommy gets a bit angry.

Tommy: “Listen Machowski, you better stay away from this, okay?”

Claude: “Stop it! You’ll see your son soon, but first we need to get some weapons.”

Tommy: “Of course! The Cubans are my allies, in fact, we should ask them for help.”

Claude: “I hope you’re right.”

Paul is starting to move.

Ray: “I guess he’s about to wake up.”

Claude: “Good. I better call Dr. Chavez.”

Ray nods. Claude leaves the room and starts walking down the hallway to the elevators. As the elevator arrives to the floor, Claude notices a strange-looking man coming from the nearby staircase. He seems to be looking for something. The elevator’s door opens. Claude hesitates about getting inside for a second and hides behind a plant instead. The man begins walking towards Room 408.

Claude comes out from his hiding place. The man hears him and quickly turns around. As Claude aims at him with his gun, the strange man does the same and both begin shooting at each other. Claude quickly jumps to the back of the plant to take cover. The shooting continues for a few seconds. Screams and alarms are heard all over the place. Many scared people are running around the whole hallway reaching for the stairs. Claude manages to shoot the strange man’s arm, which causes him to drop his gun. Claude takes advantage of this moment to go near the man, who’s just starting to run away. As Claude is approaching him, Tommy comes out from Room 408 and shoots the man’s chest with a shotgun, effectively killing him. The screams and desperation around the place continues.

Claude: “Who was that guy?”

Tommy looks carefully at the body. He notices some familiar-looking clothing.

Tommy: “Holy sh*t! He’s a Cuban!”

Claude: “What was he doing here? You haven’t even called anybody yet!”

Tommy: “I don’t know, but this is worrying.”

Claude: “We have to go now! The police or more threats will be here in no time!”

Claude: “We’ve got visitors. We better get the hell out of here, NOW!”

Several sirens are heard outside. Barry takes a look though the window.

Barry: “The cops are here!”

Tommy: “sh*t!”

Barry: “What’s the problem, Mr. Vercetti? I thought you had the VCPD on your side.”

Tommy: “Not since Commissioner Kelly died. They must be in Ortega’s side by now.”

Tommy takes his few guns from the table and takes a look at the hallway. Some people are still screaming and running away.

Claude also takes a look. One of the elevators arrives to the floor and the doors open. Five police officers come out and begin looking around. As they find the right hallway, they begin running with their guns prepared.

Claude: “All right, let’s kill ‘em!”

Tommy nods. Both begin shooting at the cops, and the cops shoot back.

Cop 1: “VCPD! DROP YOUR WEAPONS NOW!”

Cop 2: “YOU’RE SURROUNDED!”

Tommy manages to kill a cop and injure other two. The remaining cops go back to the staircase and take cover.

Ray: “Hey kid, take out some Molotov cocktails from that box in the corner!”

Claude follows Ray’s advice and opens the box, which is fully loaded with Molotov cocktails.

Claude: “Where did you get these?”

Ray: “I had to bribe that f*cking nurse! Now go and give those pigs a lesson!”

Tommy looks at Ray.

Tommy: “I’m surprised you’re actually calling them ‘pigs’...”

Ray: “Hey, I’m no longer a cop, remember?”

Claude takes a couple of cocktails and throws them at the hallway, causing a massive fire.

Claude: “That should stop them for a while.”

Tommy: “And how do we get out of here?”

The fire alarm starts ringing and the sprinklers begin working.

Claude: “We better be quick. That fire will be put out in a matter of seconds.”

The water causes Paul to wake up immediately. He’s a bit confused.

Paul: “Wha… what the hell is going on? What is this? Where am I?”

Ray: “Shut up and get your lazy ass up!”

Claude looks at the hallway, more cops are coming out from the staircase and elevators, but are stalled by the fire which is slowly being controlled.

Claude: “We better keep shooting.”

Claude and Tommy resume the shooting, killing a few cops and injuring others.

Claude: “We gotta do something quick! We won’t be able to keep them in there for very long!”

Barry takes the oxygen cylinder from Paul’s bed.

Paul: “Hey, what the f*ck are you doing?”

Barry gives the cylinder to Tommy.

Tommy: “Great idea!”

Tommy and Claude put their guns away and take the cylinder.

Claude: “All right... NOW!”

Tommy and Claude throw the cylinder down the hallway where the fire is.

Tommy: “Take cover!”

Claude, Barry and Ray take cover while Paul drops himself to the floor and hides under the bed. Tommy shoots the cylinder, closes the door and quickly sneaks behind the nearby bathroom door. A huge explosion is heard and the entire place shakes up. The door fiercely flies away and hits the window on the other side, breaking it completely.

There’s dust everywhere and the lights are blinking. Claude quickly gets up and looks outside the room. There’s destruction everywhere. The dead bodies of the cops are scattered all over the place.

Claude: “Holy crap!”

Ray and Barry get up from the floor and start coughing. Tommy comes out from the bathroom.

Tommy: “Wow! That was exciting!”

Paul slowly comes out from under his bed and gets up.

Paul: “I beg to differ… that wasn’t exciting! It was insane! You’re still the same old nutter!”

Tommy: “Oh shut up, Paul!”

A helicopter is heard outside.

Voice from helicopter: “This is the VCPD! Surrender, NOW!”

Ray: “Let’s get the f*ck away from here!”

Claude: “All right, let’s go!”

Everybody leave the room and head to the staircase. Ray moves with some difficulty but he’s promptly assisted by Claude. The explosion caused the ceiling to fall off. The debris is blocking the way.

PresidentKiller

Well I think that could potentially rewrite a good deal of the storyline.

I hope everyone remembers when this was written just in case that becomes a reality with the release of VCS.

Rown

Well, I had to rewrite some stuff when LCS was released, but at that time "The Decline of Liberty" wasn't made public to the masses yet. If VCS comes out before I'm able to finish this, I'll just leave everything as it is since it has already been written and read by many people. However, if VCS' storyline doesn't affect my story (which is unlikely), I could be able to add events and characters.

Talking about "being able to finish this", last week was a rough one and as such I wasn't able to finish this week's chapter. I'm sorry about that, but I promise you'll get 2 chapters (yes, 2 of them) on Sunday night (GMT-6 time).

The VCPD helicopter can still be heard outside, as well as several police sirens. Claude is thinking while Tommy and Ray are holding their guns and looking around. Barry is just standing there and Paul is looking at his injuries.

Paul: “It looks like a f*cking truck ran me over several times!”

Ray: “Oh, come on, stop being such a crybaby!”

Paul: “And I need a change of clothes. These hospital clothes are really uncomfortable!”

Ray: “Come on, give me a break!”

Ray looks at Claude.

Ray: “Hey kid, as much as I love to be in the middle of a destroyed hospital hallway, we need to get the f*ck out of here!!”

Paul: “There’s no such thing as a Plan B... why don’t you think of something better?”

Paul presses the elevator button several times but nothing happens.

Ray: “I’m sick of this sh*t!”

Ray takes out a knife and gives it to Claude.

Ray: “Do something!”

Claude looks at Ray.

Claude: “Like what?”

Tommy quickly takes the knife from Claude’s hand.

Tommy: “Let me see...”

Tommy sticks the knife in the elevator button. Sparkles come out from it and the light on top of the elevator stops blinking.

Paul: “What the f*ck are you doing?”

Noises can be heard from the lower floors. It seems like police reinforcements are getting into the building and going upstairs.

Paul: “This is the end! We can’t get out of here!”

Claude: “Well, we can’t stay here so we better look around for some way out or something that could be useful.”

Tommy: “All right, I guess that’s our only option right now.”

Tommy makes a gesture to Barry, who then proceeds to follow him to the other side of the hallway.

Claude: “OK, let’s go check the other rooms around here.”

Claude and Paul help Ray to move, and they all begin searching the rooms in the area. Meanwhile, Tommy and Barry keep moving on the other side.

Tommy: “f*cking idiots!”

Barry: “What do you mean?”

Tommy: “They think they’re on my side? HELL NO!!”

Tommy takes out his shotgun.

Tommy: “I can sort this sh*t out by myself. I’ve done it in the past and I’ll continue to do so.”

Barry: “You can’t be serious. There are a lot of people after you right now. We need as much help as possible!”

Tommy immediately stops and looks at Barry in the eyes.

Tommy: “I thought you were loyal.”

Barry: “I am loyal, that’s why I’m here.”

Tommy: “No, you’re not. You’re questioning me, and I don’t like it!”

Barry: “Please Mr. Vercetti, be reasonable. It’s been 15 years since you fought the Forellis. Nowadays there’re even bigger and more powerful forces trying to take you down. You have to consider that, for Christ’s sake!”

Tommy gets slightly angry.

Tommy: “You’re right, I fought the Forellis. ME! ALL BY MYSELF! I killed those bastards as fast as they arrived here. I killed Diaz and his gang before then and I killed other several people as well. All without ANYBODY’s assistance! I can solve my own problems myself! Now, you either understand that or f*ck off!”

Tommy turns around and keeps walking forward. Barry just stands in there.

Barry: “I hate to ask you this, sir, but what would you have done if Mr. Speed didn’t help you back at the mansion?”

Barry: “With all due respect sir, when are you going to stop being so f*cking arrogant? Your empire is crumbling, your wife is scared of you and your son is in a hospital bed. The people that once were on your side have now turned against you. You can only keep a charade up for so long...”

Tommy (shouting): “NONSENSE!”

Tommy keeps walking and gets into a room at the end of the hallway. Barry just stands in there, thinking. A few minutes later, Claude appears running behind him.

Claude: “Where’s Tommy? We found a way out!”

Barry: “Mr. Speed, you better leave us in here. I think Mr. Vercetti is not aware of his current reality.”

Claude: “Tell me something I don’t know...”

Claude looks around for a few seconds.

Claude: “Nevertheless, we must go so you better go get him.”

Barry: “All right, I’ll try.”

Claude: “We are near Room 419. Hurry up!”

Barry nods and gets going. Claude goes back to the other end of the hallway.

Claude begins walking towards the exit when he notices several cops approaching from the other side.

Claude: “Not again!!”

Claude hides behind some shelves. The cops finally arrive to the laundry room. They carefully search around the place while holding their guns. One of the cop approaches another one.

Cop 1: “The others said one of them must be around here somewhere. They saw him getting into the laundry chute.”

Cop 2: “Did you find the other guy?”

Cop 1: “Nope, I saw him getting out of this room and then he ran away. I chased him outside but then he took a cab. The Vice Point precinct is looking for him as we speak. He’s wearing hospital clothes which are pretty easy to spot so he won’t get very far.”

A radio signal can be heard. One of the cops takes out his walkie-talkie.

Cop 2: “What’s wrong?”

Voice on the radio: “Come up here! We need backup!!!”

Cop 2: “All right, hang in there!”

The cop puts away the walkie-talkie.

Cop 2: “Hey, let’s go upstairs!”

The cops start running back to where they came from.

Cop 1: “But the stairs are blocked!”

Cop 2: “Let’s take the elevator!”

Cop 1: “All right, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

The cops call the elevator. Once it arrives, they all get in and the doors close.

Toni is about to get inside his car when he notices a covered car parked at the other end of the garage.

Toni: “That must be Don Salvatore’s Banshee.”

Toni walks towards the car and uncovers it.

Toni: “I remember when he got it. Maria said it smelled like mid-life crisis...”

Toni laughs.

Toni: “Oh God, those were great times... too bad the bitch f*cked up.”

Toni touches the car.

Toni: “I thought he had got rid of it. He only drove it that one time.”

Toni opens the car’s door and looks around. The keys are hanging from the rear-view mirror.

Toni: “I wonder if it still works.”

Toni gets inside the car and grabs the keys. He looks at them for a few seconds and he’s about to use them when Gino appears in front of him holding a gun. Toni quickly tries to reach his gun, but Gino quickly aims at him.

Gino: “Not too fast, Toni!”

Toni looks at Gino. He looks in a pretty bad shape.

Toni: “What the f*ck are you doing? How pleasant it is to see you just after one woman died and another one disappeared...”

Gino: “I didn’t kill her Toni. You did.”

Toni: “Me? What the f*ck are you talking about?”

Gino: “She committed suicide because of you, Toni.”

Toni: “If she killed herself, it was probably the drugs. That f*cking junkie never understood they were bad for her.”

Gino: “Yeah, drugs such as SPANK, Toni? Maria told me you gave her that sh*t!”

Toni laughs.

Toni: “SPANK? I don’t know anything about that. Now get the hell out of here before you get hurt! But remember, you’re a marked man now, and you won’t get far!”

Gino: “Oh yeah, a marked man like Speed, right? He’s enjoying himself in Vice City right now, probably banging a hot blonde.”

Toni gets a bit mad.

Gino: “You have disappointed the family, Toni. You let Speed kill the Don.”

Toni: “Oh dear Gino. How wrong you are.”

Toni gets out of the car and walks slowly towards Gino.

Gino: “Stay where you are Toni, or you’ll die. I’m not kidding.”

Toni: “I’m not kidding either, boy. Listen, everything worked exactly the way I wanted. The Don is dead, Joey is dead, that f*cking whore is dead, Donald Love is dead, and Fabrizio and his joke of a gang are probably heading to their deaths too. Speed is a very effective killing machine and I’m sure he’ll take care of them.”

Gino: “What are you saying, Toni?”

Toni: “As soon as they’re gone, including you, I’ll be the new kingpin. The Mafia will be finally under my control.”

Gino: “What about your mom, Toni? Her disappearance was also part of the plan?”

Toni stops.

Toni: “What do you know about her? Where is she?”

Gino: “Relax, Toni. She’s probably enjoying a nice Asian cock as we speak. The poor lady hasn’t had any action since you whacked out Casa.”

Toni gets furious.

Toni: “Tell me where she is! NOW!!!”

Gino: “Oh, yeah, some Asian guy was outside the restaurant looking at her window. I thought that could turn into something interesting so I just sat back and enjoyed the show.”

Toni quickly takes out a gun. Gino shoots at Toni and manages to hurt his arm. Toni backs down a little but quickly shoots Gino in the chest. Gino’s body immediately falls on the floor and blood starts coming out.

Toni: “You f*cking idiot!”

Toni spits at Gino’s body.

Toni quickly goes back to his Mafia Sentinel and leaves. As Toni drives away from the mansion, Francesco can be seen coming down from the front stairs. He quickly notices Gino’s body laying on the floor.

Francesco: “What the f*ck happened here?”

Francesco takes out his cell-phone and dials a number. A few seconds later, Toni answers.

Toni: “What do you want?”

Francesco: “Hey Toni, what the hell happened at the garage? Gino is dead and I saw your car speeding away.”